Kindness
Taking Offense
I think it was Brigham Young who said, “He who takes offense when no offense was intended is a fool. He who takes offense when offense is intended is also a fool.”
I neither take offense nor give it, so I am completely baffled by last Saturday evening’s encounter. There are some people around whom you have to tiptoe and be very careful. If I was to name those people, my niece, Jacque Cobb, would not be on the list.
Spiritual Lay-ups
If you’re a good basketball player, and are tall enough, and can jump high enough, you can do a lay-up. You accomplish a lay-up when you leap three feet into the air and simply dunk the basketball into the 10-foot-high net. The crowd cheers, and you run down the floor with the feeling that you’ve done something great.
Read MoreHuckleberries
Marjorie’s mother, Zelma Hunt, was the neighborhood’s “go-to” person and caretaker. If anyone in the neighborhood was sick or had other troubles, Zelma was always there with a visit, a meal, and any help needed. Lula, Zelma’s neighbor through the block to the northwest, became ill, and told her husband, Ace, to “Go get Hunt; she’ll know what to do.”
Read MoreAmazing Animals
Several stories about animals have come to my attention this week, and need to be put together in one place.
The first was a report on “Beautiful Jim Key,” which is the title of a book about a horse of that name. I’m hopefully going to find a copy of the book to purchase.
Leave Five Things Behind
If you would be a light to the world, as the Savior enjoined His Saints to be, then you should strive to leave positive things in your wake, wherever you go.
Read MoreLaw of the Boomerang
In my scriptures, beside the 15th verse of Alma chapter 41 I have written “Law of the Boomerang”. The name of the law is mine, but the principle it illustrates is laced throughout the scriptures.
Read MoreCalamity
Yesterday I finished reading the Book of Mormon. In the past several days, I’ve, therefore, read the accounts of the destructions of two great nations—the Jaredites and the Nephites. There were actually other great destructions which took place earlier, such as in the days of Akish, when all but 30 people and the house of Omer were killed in a great civil war. (Ether 9:12). Before that, in the days of Heth, there was “a great dearth upon the land, and the inhabitants began to be destroyed exceedingly fast because of the dearth, for there was no rain upon the face of the earth.” (Ether 9:30).
Read MoreRudeness Bites—Kindness Scores
The trouble with Laman and Lemuel was rudeness. They seemed to know nothing of kindness, and were, instead, caught up in selfishness, criticism, murmuring, and extreme rudeness. Nephi used the word “rudeness” twice in one verse when referring to his brothers. While aboard the ship he says that they “began…to speak with much rudeness, yea…they were lifted up unto exceeding rudeness.” (1 Ne. 18:9).
Read MoreKindness
The very basis for all of Jesus’ teachings may be summed up in His oft-repeated admonition to “love one another.”
Read MorePay Attention!
My mother once went into a car dealership to buy a pickup. She had the money in her purse and was ready to pay in full for the vehicle.
Read MoreAnd the Fairy Moved In
“James, I want you to make me a fairy house on your lathe,” Marjorie said.
“What does a fairy house look like?” I asked
Thoughts Upon a Shoeshine
Whenever I shine my shoes I think of a lady I heard about in New York City who sniffed disdainfully about women who don’t shine the bottoms of their shoes.
Read MoreKindness
The very basis for all of Jesus’ teachings may be summed up in His oft-repeated admonition to “love one another.”
We accomplish this through kindness. The measure of a person, and the measure of his Christianity, if you will, lies in how he treats others.